Hearing Faen's words, walking out of the smoke, LeBlanc's graceful figure swayed from side to side like a blooming flower.
Her eyes, originally filled with abundant amusement, couldn't help but show a bit more curiosity and hidden seriousness.
The Mastermind of Noxus... although she didn't quite understand why the other party called her this, just from the changes in Faen's gaze, expression, and emotional tone, LeBlanc could more or less feel that Faen's understanding of her was definitely not from hearsay.
"You... know me?" LeBlanc said with slight curiosity: "But in my memory, there is no such person as you."
To this, Faen appeared very calm.
The Deceiver, LeBlanc. One of the veteran champions in League of Legends, and also the most classic outplay champion in the early versions. In the hands of a good player and a bad player, she was completely two different champions; just her skill mechanics destined her to have infinite possibilities.
Especially at that time, her Q skill wasn't called 'Sigil of Malice' like now. Before June 2014, it was called 'Sigil of Silence'. As the name implied, the second instance of damage came with a silence effect. A character with crowd control, burst damage, and mobility, plus a ranged silence method—just thinking about it could make one feel the despair of squishy AD carries facing her.
Although she suffered brutal nerfs later, the skill mechanics were there. As long as it was suitable, she could be picked. Whether in casual games or professional matches, she constantly created iconic scenes, considered an evergreen tree among mid-lane champions.
And more importantly, LeBlanc was also a rare individual who was extremely powerful both in the game and in the background lore.
This power wasn't the simple and crude physical strength of Nilah, Volibear, or Ornn, but the sum of her identity, status, and abilities. Although in the background lore, the reason she was able to rise was by assisting and backstabbing the Iron Revenant Sahn-Uzal after the Darkin Warlord era to gain power, becoming the actual highest authority in Noxus. But in fact, according to Kassadin's background story, his Nether Blade originated from the ancient Ascended Horok; this blade had slain over a thousand deceptive tricksters during the late empire period.
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Although this was only mentioned from the side and didn't prove it was LeBlanc herself, it undoubtedly proved that LeBlanc's origin was ancient.
And the reason she was called the Mastermind of Noxus, the foolish beauty of the Black Rose... was mainly because LeBlanc liked to do bad things, and every time a bad deed failed, she would create a powerful opponent.
Plotting for the power of Shuriman Ascended, causing Azir, Renekton, Xerath, and others to break free. Controlling Darkwill to kill Swain, but as a result, Swain not only lived well but even gained the favor and power of a secret demon. Later she wanted to stop Swain from grasping power, but various malicious schemes and tricks were all cracked by Swain one by one, even helping Swain achieve his prestige.
Infiltrating Demacia, only to be stalled all day by Garen and his sixteen Dauntless Vanguard Demacian captains. Two squads of people forcibly withstood the fierce attack of a legion for a whole night until reinforcements arrived, executing the rebel king, turning the king of that country from a massive romantic who wanted beauty over the kingdom into an iron-blooded Demacia fanatic.
Besides this, she betrayed Mordekaiser to rise to power, only to find out later that her betrayal was also part of Mordekaiser's plan. Training Rell to fight Mordekaiser, resulting in Rell finding out the truth and fighting the Black Rose to the death. Wanting to control Mordekaiser's pet, resulting in the fire demon becoming Annie's toy bear. Attacking Ionia, ultimately causing Ionia to complete its traditional transformation and establish a blood feud. Creating Briar, resulting in Briar successfully escaping and holding a natural malice towards the Black Rose...
Sounding like this, LeBlanc gave people the feeling of being a mastermind with world-shocking wisdom, a clone hag. But in fact, this was only the part of her plans that failed. In reality, LeBlanc was still very tricky—she excelled at deceptive magic and was good at creating clones.
Especially according to the latest short story description, her clones were spread across every corner of Runeterra. Even when Katarina successfully assassinated King Jarvan III of Demacia, there was help provided by a LeBlanc clone disguised as a maid—of course, the MVP was still the kind-hearted Garen; although Katarina successfully assassinated, she was still a dog who was carried to victory.
And through the assassination of Jarvan III, it could be seen that once LeBlanc's plans succeeded, they would bring serious consequences. For example, after Jarvan III's death, Jarvan IV's prestige
Compared to the long chaos Demacia suffered, just adding a few unorganized wandering enemies, this level of failure was nothing to LeBlanc at all. After all, those guys who hated LeBlanc might not even know who LeBlanc really was...
Thinking this, Faen also rubbed his chin, glancing over LeBlanc simply twice, and nodded thoughtfully.
This LeBlanc wasn't the LeBlanc in Faen's memory—LeBlanc had many versions, and the splash art of each version was different. In previous splash arts, the feeling given was more enchanting and wicked—but looking closely, one could find that the splash art players actually saw when loading the game was an illusion created by LeBlanc, while the real LeBlanc could be seen by clicking the full splash art, showing LeBlanc's phantom sneering and pulling away, leaving the illusion to face the enemy.
And LeBlanc's different clones often possessed different appearances. Just like this Deceiver now, it wasn't the third version of splash art that players were generally most familiar with in Faen's impression, nor the image that appeared in the easter eggs in Arcane Season 2. Not even the image in Legends of Runeterra, but the second version splash art.
During the first version splash arts of the old League of Legends champions, Riot was still just a small grassroots company. The quality of character splash arts inside couldn't even be described as uneven, but literally an eyesore. For details, see the first edition Poppy splash art; those huge cheeks made people unable to tell who was the real Maw of the Abyss.
But the second version splash arts were different. This was when Tencent, after getting the domestic copyright, found the splash arts were truly an eyesore, so they specially hired people to draw brand-new splash arts. And this batch of splash arts was also the batch old players were most familiar with, among which Leona the Radiant Dawn and Sivir the Battle Mistress were considered classics.
But later on, one was changed into an old auntie, and the other's posture was twisted out of shape. It wasn't until the new version arrived that Sivir got a bit better, but Leona's beauty was gone never to return.
And now this second version splash art Deceiver, although the clothing style was the same as Riot's ancient first version splash art, her appearance, demeanor, temperament, figure, and posture were obviously more enchanting.
The old version splash art is LeBlanc's clone image in this universe? If put this way, without considering the background lore, then perhaps LeBlanc's other clones would also debut in the images of her skins?
Thinking this, Faen's eyes also revealed a slight look of contemplation, and then he asked: "Which of her clones are you?"
"Clone? Ha, lucky little guy, I am the main body." Hearing Faen's words, a smile also appeared on LeBlanc's face: "After all, people like you who sign contracts with spirit realm lives and demons at the same time are truly very few. Flowing water and wind? Wind I can guess, is it Janna here? Then what about flowing water? The Torrent Demon Dorid?"
Looking at Faen, LeBlanc's gaze was full of scrutiny. As a mage who had existed since the Rune War era, or even an era much older than that, LeBlanc's understanding of this world far exceeded ordinary people. Although she couldn't freely enter and exit the spirit realm like Faen, she more or less knew about the existence of demons and spirit realm lives.
In this territory of the Twin Cities, a spirit realm life capable of controlling storms wasn't something hard to guess for LeBlanc—as early as the Shuriman era, Janna's faith had already existed. And as a life that had existed for thousands of years, LeBlanc knew better than anyone what had happened on this land. In contrast, regarding Faen's ability to control flowing water, LeBlanc was slightly puzzled.
Water, as one of the most common elements in the material realm, had an unknown number of deities and demons related to it. Let alone others, although Nagakabouros in the Bilgewater sea area was in charge of motion, her authority itself was also manifested as flowing water in the material realm. And similar to torrent demons, vortex demons... similar demons were even more innumerable.
It wasn't that water as a carrier of power was cheap, but as one of the oldest elements, there were simply too many ancient existences related to water. Combined with the Rune War era causing a large number of demons to enter the material realm, even if LeBlanc didn't have deep experience, she couldn't make an accurate judgment. And the Torrent Demon was relatively ancient and powerful enough related to water sources in LeBlanc's impression.
And hearing LeBlanc say she was the main body, Faen just smiled without refuting—every clone of LeBlanc deeply believed they were the main body. And as for what the actual real main body looked like, perhaps even the splash arts were deceptive?
Thinking this, Faen just said peacefully: "You will know very soon."
"I will make you spit it out." Hearing Faen's answer, LeBlanc equally didn't feel angry because of it, even imitating Faen's expression and looking at Faen with a smile. But immediately after, accompanied by a touch of coldness in her eyes, LeBlanc raised the staff in her hand: "I happen to lack a good dog to guard the house and yard here!"
"Great minds think alike."
Faen nodded, also rolling his wrists and saying: "First time meeting a named bad girl like you, I don't plan to let it go just like this."